Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Missouri is one of a handful of states applying for some $2.4 billion in federal funding for high-speed rail projects that Florida rejected last month.

Governor Jay Nixon was in Kirkwood Tuesday to announce Missouri’s application for nearly one billion dollars in new funding.

In recent months rail projects have become politicized with many GOP lawmakers calling for states to refuse the funds.

For his part, Nixon, a Democrat, says he sees rail as a good investment for Missouri.

"From my chair I don’t look at this as a partisan issue, I mean dollars that weren’t available have been made available. And we have a very very small amount of state resources that we have to be put up, I mean 4.5 million dollars to potentially get a billion dollars," Nixon said.

Missouri’s application is earmarked for Amtrak’s St. Louis to Kansas City line.

The project would complement a high-speed project already underway between St. Louis and Chicago.

President Barack Obama has championed 53 billion dollars in high-speed projects to spur job growth across the country.